


A Different Kind of Profound Bond

by equisetum



Category: Supernatural
Genre: At least somewhat emotionally mature boys, Emotionally mature boys, First Kiss, Getting Together, Handcuffed Together, M/M, Sort Of, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:13:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29440983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/equisetum/pseuds/equisetum
Summary: “Cas. Why the hell are you in my bed?”“My apologies Dean, but I don’t know.”“What do you mean you don’t know? How can you not know what you’re doing here?”“That’s not what you asked. I know what I’m doing. I’m sitting. I’ve been sitting here for the last two and half hours, almost three hours now, waiting for you to wake up.”“Potato, potato,” Dean frowns into the pillow, praying to any higher power that listens to give him the patience to deal with this before he’s had his coffee. “Okay then. Why are you in my bed?”“I told you, I don’t know. I was in Madagascar watching the ring-tailed lemurs, you know how I like when lemurs jump sideways like that, and then all of a sudden I wasn’t there anymore. I had been transported here and was sitting on your bed. Tied to you.”Cas lifts his left hand; a pink ribbon is attached to his wrist. It curls in a few loops on the mattress before it disappears under Dean’s pillow. Dean sits up very quickly. The other end of it is looped around his own right wrist.Shit.Or, Dean and Cas spend the morning of Valentine's Day fighting a magical shrinking pink ribbon with hearts on it.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 6
Kudos: 61





	A Different Kind of Profound Bond

Dean is in that wonderful state between being asleep and awake. For once he feels like he’s had a good night’s sleep, not waking up from nightmares and horrible memories of people dying does wonders for the mood and your energy levels. He is still sleep soft and it’s warm in the bed. It seems to be even warmer on the other side of the bed, so Dean turns over and snuggles closer to the source of the warmth.

“Dean wake up,” the heat source says.

The voice is deep and very familiar, it feels safe. But it’s so insistent and Dean doesn’t want to do what it says, he wants to go back to sleep and see if he can find that blue color he saw in his dream again. He protests and tries to bury even closer to the warmth.

“I understand that you are comfortable, Dean, but you have to wake up. We need to fix this.”

Dean finally gives in and stirs, his face is half smushed into his pillow and half pressed against a body. A body in his bed? What? That can’t be right, he doesn’t bring anyone home to the bunker, that’s way too dangerous, and besides it’s been an eternity since someone caught his eye at a bar or anywhere else for that matter. Dean lifts his head. Cas. That’s why the voice was so familiar even though he was basically still asleep. He groans and lets his head fall back down on the pillow, forcing himself to move away from Cas. Just a little bit, he doesn’t seem to be able to go very far away from Cas.

“Cas. Why the hell are you in my bed?”

“My apologies Dean, but I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? How can you not know what you’re doing here?”

“That’s not what you asked. I know what I’m doing. I’m sitting. I’ve been sitting here for the last two and half hours, almost three hours now, waiting for you to wake up.”

“Potato, potato,” Dean frowns into the pillow, praying to any higher power that listens to give him the patience to deal with this before he’s had his coffee. “Okay then. _Why_ are you in my bed?”

“I told you, I don’t know. I was in Madagascar watching the ring-tailed lemurs, you know how I like when lemurs jump sideways like that, and then all of a sudden I wasn’t there anymore. I had been transported here and was sitting on your bed. Tied to you.”

Cas lifts his left hand; a pink ribbon is attached to his wrist. It curls in a few loops on the mattress before it disappears under Dean’s pillow. Dean sits up very quickly. The other end of it is looped around his own right wrist.

“Son of a bitch! What the hell is this?!” He pulls at it, but it won’t budge. When Dean inspects it closer after turning on the bedside lamp, there are no knots or fastenings of any kind. It’s just there, almost like it’s been welded on to their arms. As for the ribbon itself, Dean looks at it and almost shudders. It’s one of the most aggressively froufrou things he’s ever seen, and he’s seen some weird shit in his life. It has a light pink base, and what he first thought was dots turns out to be hearts in several shades of darker pink, red, and purple. Some are even covered in glitter.

Dean almost suspects the start of a new prank war, but then he remembers that Sam’s spending the weekend with Eileen and that Cas had just popped down next to him like he’d been summoned, so he stashes that idea back where it came from.

“All right. That’s it, let’s go cut this eyesore off before we turn into freakin My Little Pony or something. Then we can figure out what happened.” 

Out of old habit, Dean turns to his left to get off the bed on what he considers to be his side. It hits him that it’s kind of strange that he has a side in the bed that is his, when in reality all of the bed is his, and he should be able to roll out of bed on either side of it without it feeling weird. The thought disappears when he’s yanked backwards back onto the bed and his half naked body collides with Cas’ fully clothed body. They both wince at the impact, and Dean is actually thankful for the pain in his head where it bumped into Cas’ as they try to detangle themselves from each other. He really doesn’t need to think about his own limbs entwined with Cas’. Especially not in bed. Not now. Not when he’s only dressed in boxers and a t-shirt.

“It would seem that the ribbon is too short for us to dismount the bed at different sides.”

“Yeah thanks for that input Captain Obvious. I kinda noticed that myself,” Dean huffs and rubs at the sore spot at his temple. “And don’t use the word ‘dismount’. Just don’t.”

Dean sighs and submits himself to the undignified feeling of having to crawl across the bed to the foot end at the other side so they can get to their feet without any more painful incidents. He leads them over to his dresser where he picks up yesterday’s folded jeans and pulls them on, he opens a drawer and puts on a pair of socks before he shoves his feet into his boots, not bothering with tying them, he just pushes the strings down under his feet. On the top of the dresser is a flannel shirt, he tries to put it on but since he and Cas are bound together, only his left arm is able to make it through its sleeve. He lets it go and it hangs from his left wrist. Great, now it feels like both his arms are stuck.

“Damn it! Come on, kitchen time!” Dean says and pulls Cas after him while taking off the flannel that’s dragging behind him on the floor.

When they get to the kitchen, Dean tugs Cas to one of the drawers where he takes out the scissors and in one quick motion, he cuts the ribbon off.

“Aha! See, that wasn’t so complicated. Problem solv…” Dean swallows the second half of the word as the ribbon swiftly heals itself and he is yet again bound to Cas. “What the hell just happened? Did you see that?”

“Yes. It’s very strange. Do you think it’s dangerous?” Cas frowns down at the ribbon, eyebrows knitted together.

“I don’t know, I just want it gone.” Dean lifts the scissors again and cuts it off once more. And again. And again. “Damn it!” He tries with a knife instead; the edges of the ribbon aren’t as neatly severed as with the scissors, but he barely has time to lift the knife before the ribbon is back together. He cuts it off again and this time he takes a big leap backwards, away from Cas, just as he cuts through the shiny fabric that ties them together. His hope of freedom shatters immediately when Cas is shoved closer to him at such a speed that they go tumbling down on the floor, tangled together again. Nearly all of Cas’ weight is pressed down on Dean, Cas lifts his head and looks down on him. Dean feels Cas’ breathing on his face and his eyes dart down to Cas’ parted lips. Dean’s eyes close and after forcing himself to take a steadying breath, he manages to get out “What if we try your angel blade?” His voice still sounds shaky to his own ears, but he hopes that Cas’ll put that to their combined fall and not to the proximity. He keeps his eyes shut as Cas struggles to sit up, determinedly thinking about things that aren’t his best friend’s squirming body against his own. When he looks up, he sees Cas’ face screwed up in that concentrated look he always gets when he summons his blade. Cas cuts off the ribbon and they share a bemused look when it magically glues itself back together.

“Do it again.”

“No Dean. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not? It’s gotta work sooner or later.”

“Perhaps. But it seems like it’s gotten much shorter. I think it’s shrinking a bit every time it gets cut off and then heals.” Cas holds up his left hand. Now that Dean looks at it, he sees that Cas is right; the ribbon started out being four feet something and now there’s just three feet of sparkly material separating their hands. And that is if you’re generous with your measuring. 

“Oh fuck. Yeah. Okay, yeah, let’s not do that anymore.” Dean buries his face in his hand.

“What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know Cas.” He peeks out between his fingers, wincing. “But I really need to pee.”

Dean decides to take them to the smallest bathroom in the entire bunker. He hopes that if he does that, he can go in and Cas can stay outside. They manage to do that, but it’s a very close call. Cas has to stay pressed against the door frame, and when Dean has closed the door behind him, he can just about reach the toilet to do his business. On the other side of the door he can still hear Cas muttering about the fact that it’s really very unnecessary to close the door and that urinating is a completely natural process and all mammals do it as a way to get rid of metabolic waste products from the body and why should Dean be ashamed of it and force Cas to stand so uncomfortably close to the door? Dean tunes him out as much as he can. Cas still needs come in for him to be able to reach the sink to wash his hands. It is one of the most excruciatingly embarrassing bathroom experiences Dean’s had in a very long time, which really is saying something considering all his years on the road with dingy gas stations and shared motel rooms.

Dean dries his hands and turns to Cas. “Okay, let’s go back to the kitchen and make some coffee. And then I think we’ll call Rowena up for a little chat.”

“Rowena?”

“Yeah. I think she’ll be our best shot at trying to figure out what’s going on here, since you know she’s a centuries old witch and there seems to be some kinda magic shit going on with this girly leash thingy.”

“Dean, from what I’ve seen throughout history, pink doesn’t need to be a feminine color. In fact, artists often depict baby Jesus dressed in red or pink and Mary in blue in paintings, and in the 18th century it was worn by both men and women of the European aristocracies, and boys were often dressed in pink because people saw it as a lighter red, which was a military color, and in Northern India pink turbans are very common, and” Cas draws in another breath to continue his lecture on the apparently so fascinating history of color. Dean cuts in before he can start talking again.

“Yeah yeah, I’m sure that’s very interesting but it doesn’t matter right now. Come on, coffee.”

As they are waiting for the coffee to brew, Cas turns to Dean.

“Are you sure we should call Rowena? Wouldn’t it be better to start with Sam? He has a vast knowledge of spells and enchantments; he might know what we should do.”

“No. I ain’t calling Sam about this. Firstly, he’s having a cozy weekend with Eileen, and I don’t even want to think about what they’re doing but I know that we shouldn’t interrupt them,” Dean shudders and hands Cas a cup of coffee as he looks sternly at him, trying to get Cas to realize that they can never reveal this to Sam. “Secondly, if we were to tell him about this, that you showed up in my bed and that we’re tied together by a shrinking pink band with glitter on it? Sam’d laugh until he got a hernia, and we’d never ever hear the end of it. So, no Cas, we ain’t telling Sammy about this. Never ever, got it?” He holds Cas’ gaze until he nods back at Dean.

“Good,” he pours himself a cup of coffee. Dean drags Cas after him to the fridge and takes out what’s left of the apple pie he baked yesterday, he moves to cut a piece and put it on a plate but decides against it. Screw manners, he’s got more pressing things to think about. He takes a fork and shoves pie directly from the tin into his mouth. As he chews, he pulls out his phone and flips through the phonebook, and when waiting for Rowena to pick up he scoops in more pie.

“Well well, if it isn’t Dean Winchester.”

“Hey Rowena. How are you doing? Good? Good. I kinda need a favor.”

“A favor? My, what could I do for you, my second favorite hunter?”

“I’m your second favorite? Who’s first?”

“Why, that would be Samuel of course. He shows a much greater propensity for the magical arts than you do Dean, surely you must know that.”

“Uh… Yeah, sure. I’m actually calling you to ask about magic stuff. You see,” he says and launches into an explanation of the things they’ve been through during the morning. He’s not even a quarter through, before he needs switch over to speaker phone since Cas keeps interrupting to add things or to explain them in other words.

“I see,” Rowena says when they’re done. “Castiel, when you say you were transported, did you feel anything out of the ordinary? Something you’re not used to? Anything unusual at all?”

Cas tilts his head and squints as he thinks, and Dean has to dig his fingernails into the palm of his hands to not reach out and do something stupid.

“No, I don’t think so. It felt like it does when I’m flying.”

“Precisely my point. It may be magical but I do not believe that there’s anything particularly malign about this ribbon you speak of, rather that it’s some sort of practical joke.”

“A prank? But who would do that?” Cas asks, head still tilted to one side.

“Oh, come now, boys, you can do better than that. Have a proper think about it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do. Do let me know how it goes. Toodles.” She hangs up.

Cas looks at Dean. “Do you really think it’s a prank?”

“Maybe.”

“Who do you think would do this to us?”

“I’m starting to get an inkling. I think Rowena might be on to something with the whole you not feeling anything strange when plopped down into my bed.” Dean feels himself flush at the possible implication of his last words and tries to hide it by downing the last of his coffee. He sees Cas process the information and the moment it clicks for him he makes an oh-face.

“Gabriel.”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Dean has barely gotten the words out before the kitchen is filled with the sound of fluttering wings and Gabriel pops into the room, grinning around a lollipop.

“I thought I heard the sweet sound of my beautiful name! Hey guys, Happy Valentine’s Day!” He pulls the lollipop out of his mouth. It’s bright red and shaped like a heart, Dean can smell the artificial cherry of it from where he’s standing seven feet away.

“Gabriel, this is not funny!” Cas scowls at his brother.

“Au contraire Cassie boy, I think this is hilarious! Naaaw, I see that it’s shrunken a bit, hasn’t it? I guess that’s your doing Dean-o, cutting it off so many times? T-t-t-t-t. I was so generous with the length of my pretty ribbon, almost five feet is a lot further than the normal distance between the two of you. But of course you couldn’t help yourselves and had to get closer to each other. That’s actually kind of sweet, but I must say, I’m a little disappointed that you figured it out so quickly. It would’ve been so much fun if it had shrunk more…”

“Listen here you smug little fucker! If you don’t remove this girly shit -”

“Dean.”

“Yeah, I know Cas, I know. If you don’t remove this _pink_ shit right now, I’m gonna banish you to the fucking moon using every damn sigil I know!”

“Oh Deanie, don’t be such a meanie! Come on, that’s no way to speak to someone on this day of love. I think it’s time to… Hmm, yes it definitely is.” Gabriel gives the lollipop a few kitten licks before he puts it back into his mouth. He smirks and snaps his fingers. The length of the ribbon shrinks so much that it’s just the loops around their wrists left of it. Dean’s right arm is now pressed flush against Cas’ left and Dean feels the soft skin of the back of Cas’ hand rubbing against his own when Cas moves. Shit. This is _not_ good. “There we are. Much better!” Gabriel smirks again.

“Gabriel, release us now!”

“Nopes, lil bro. Shan’t do that, won’t do that. I’m just trying to help, to give you two a final little push. All that pining is starting to get on my nerves. On all our nerves, I think. It was fun in the beginning but now it’s just tedious and in fact a bit pathetic, so I figured it was time to do something about it. Hey, why don’t you see the ribbon as a different kind of profound bond!”

Dean gapes at the arch angel, feeling himself go beet red. When he glances at Cas, there’s a soft dusting of pink at the top of his high cheekbones.

“As pleasant as this has been, I can’t hang around here all day. I’ve got Valentine’s Day plans of my own, you know.” Gabriel wiggles his eyebrows before giving them a pointed look. “I think that the two of you know deep down how to get rid of the last of the ribbon. I’ve peeked in on you a couple of times this morning and you’ve been reeeaaal close. So I guess it’s up to you now, if you’re gonna do anything about it or if you’re gonna stay stuck together. Not that there’s that much of a difference to how it usually is…” He shrugs. “Well, I really must be off, clock’s ticking, places to be and people to do and all that jazz. Good luck kiddos! Have fun and remember to use protection!” Gabriel winks at them and plops away, the last thing they hear of him is his cackling laughter.

After Gabriel has disappeared, they stand there, side by side, in the quiet kitchen. The only sound is the hum of the fridge and the occasional creaking from the bunker’s old heating system.

All of the anger and frustration Dean has felt throughout the morning has suddenly left him. He doesn’t really know what to feel right now. Confusion, mostly. Gabriel may be a smarmy little bastard who generally does things just for shits and giggles, but even if he messes with people, he’s not evil. Dean sighs. Shit, why is everyone so insightful today? But what if Gabriel’s right though? Maybe it’s time to finally do something about this thing that’s been between him and Cas since… since when really? Dean loses himself in thought, reflecting back on everything they’ve been through. Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. Angels and demons. Gods and humans. Working together and working against each other. Dying and coming back to life. Lost memories and having been torn apart. But, he thinks, no matter how many times they’ve lost each other they have always, _always_ found each other again. Him and Cas. Cas and him. If Dean would live a million lives, he’d never meet anyone who could mean as much to him than Cas does, who could affect him as much as Cas does. They have been so much for each other. Allies. Friends. Enemies. Family. And yeah, there’s something else too. Something that’s been there for a very long time. If Dean’s honest with himself - and why shouldn’t he at this point, he’s sick and tired of lying to himself, of denying and suppressing things – he has other feelings for Cas. Not a crush, that sounds too childish and besides it’s not enough. Not even being in love is strong enough, he knows that he loves Cas, but what they have is something else. Something completely different. And yeah, he knows that all couples are different from each other and that all couples probably think that their story is the greatest love story ever, but Dean knows for a fact that their story has every other beat. It’s time for them to take the final step now. No one is dead or dying. No one is going through any kind of trials or being a demon or a god. No one is trying to rebel against something and there are no big bads to defeat and no apocalypse to stop. It’s finally time. And if they need a new word to be able to describe what they are to each other, then that’ll come in due time. Otherwise, him and Cas, they have always been good at defying all labels. The timing is finally right, and all Dean feels is the rightness of it.

He turns to look at Cas and when he sees into his blue eyes, he’s absolutely certain that this is it. A life defining moment. He knows that during the last few minutes, Cas has gone through a similar thought process to his own. He can see it in his eyes. Dean is met with so much love and warmth and adoration that his breath catches in his throat.

“Dean?”

“Hmmm?”

“Dean?”

“Yeah, Cas?”

And that’s all that Cas needs. He lifts his free hand to Dean’s cheek and when his thumb strokes Dean’s cheekbone the look in his eyes soften even more. Dean’s own free hand, his left one, goes to Cas’s hip, and when he sees Cas lean in, he moves it to the small of his back to pull him closer. Dean’s eyes don’t close until their lips meet and he knows that he was right. This is a life defining moment. Dean doesn’t understand how he has gone so many years without kissing Cas and now that he has started, he feels like he never wants to stop doing it. It gets even better once Cas open his mouth when Dean licks at his full bottom lip and their tongues touch for the first time. Dean swallows Cas’ moan and lifts his right hand to bury his fingers in Cas’ dark hair and he feels Cas’ both arms wind around his waist to get even closer. Wait. Both his arms? 

At the sound of a fanfare, they reluctantly pull away from each other. Not far away, just far enough to be able to look around the room and see the banner that folds out along the entire wall over the table. It says ‘Congrats on finally getting your heads out of your asses!!!’ in bright cursive letters. They also see the confetti that starts falling from the ceiling. Heart shaped confetti in shades of pink, red, and purple. But what else could they expect from Gabriel when he tied them together with that pink ribbon?

(The confetti keeps falling for several hours. It’s like some kind of Barbie-snow, but thankfully it’s only in the kitchen. They sweep it up later, wanting to get rid of it before Sam comes back home. And if Dean scoops up some of the hearts to put in a drawer and keep as a memory of the final push they needed to get together at last? Well, then that’s between him and Cas…)

(They don’t tell Sam how they finally got together. Gabriel tells him. And yeah, Dean was right. Sam laughs so hard he falls off the chair he’s sitting on and then he keeps erupting into giggles at random times over the next few weeks. Dean’s revenge for the constant teasing that follows is to make out with Cas on every single surface in the bunker. Every. Single. Surface. Including Sam’s bed. Revenge is sweet.

Especially when it tastes like Cas.)

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to do something for Valentine's Day but I didn't know what I wanted to write. Then, the other morning I woke up and found a note on my desk that said "VDAY STRING GABE" in all caps. I have no memory of writing it, but it must have been me and now here we are. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Happy Destiel Wedding day everyone!


End file.
